Moroccan Healthcare Exodus: Nurses Flee to Canada Amid ’Deplorable’ Work Conditions

"I love my country and I love my profession and helping people in need. But I had to leave my post and my homeland because the working conditions were not there... And I’m absolutely not surprised to see that many other nurses and executives are leaving Morocco to come to Canada," confided Hafssa, a Moroccan nurse who worked for ten years in Témara, in a video shared on Facebook.

And she added: "We received correspondence from the Order of Nurses of Canada to welcome these nurses, help and support them, especially on a social level (help them find housing, etc.) to start their lives. Others will certainly follow [...] When a nurse starts working in Canada, he knows exactly what he has to do, he knows his limits which are well defined. He knows where the skills of a registered/auxiliary nurse begin and where they end. No one can exceed their scope of action and the tasks assigned to them."

Some 1,000 nurses and nurses of different nationalities arrive each month in Canada, says Hafssa, specifying that last October, more than 30 Moroccan nurses joined Canada where working conditions are more favorable. "Here you are paid for each hour of work. In Morocco, you work more than your legal hours and you are not paid for overtime... Here, you work 15 minutes more, you note it in the register, you are paid at the end. It’s as simple as that," details the young nurse who now lives and works in Quebec.

With the mandatory overtime (TSO) applicable in this province, the nurse can earn more money. "One hour of work is $23. If you add an extra mandatory shift, which is the TSO, you are paid double, i.e. $46 an hour, which is motivating for a large category of nurses. The final remuneration allows you to have a good standard of living, in addition to the social security which is also good," she explains, deploring that "in Morocco, nothing motivates you to stay and work. Even if you have the necessary will and you want to serve your country, there are many drawbacks..."